German government admitted that it has been using the coronavirus application to identify protestors whom have hit the streets in large masses despite high risk of the virus spread to condemn wide-range racism among law enforcement officials.
German government has been accused of taking advantage of coronavirus to curb freedoms in the country. German state giant Deutsche Telecom handed client information to the government at the beginning of the pandemic as part of an effort to fight the coronavirus. The policy has been criticized by the rights groups and activists but Berlin claimed that the information would not be used for any purpose other than fighting Covid-19.
But German government on Friday admitted that it uses the coronavirus application yo crack down on protestors. During a press conference, Russian state tv RT journalist asked the Federal government spokesperson Steffen Seibert if German government followed the path of the United States in using the coronavirus application to identify the protestors. Seibert provided a single-word response: Yes.
Western media and the govermens have several times pointed countries like Turkey and Russia and claimed that coronavirus measures would be used to implement authoritarian policies. However, Germany has so far shown that it had taken advantage of the pandemic to acquire more personal information of its citizens. Data protection experts have warned that the state-backed coronavirus application in Germany could end up handing several personal information to the government. According to an article published on The Local Germany, although downloading and signing-in is voluntary, application could provide crucial personal health data to the government.
